Teaching aides are used to teach a variety of subjects and activities including sports. Swimming is an activity where teaching aides can be of particular utility. Swimming is a common recreational activity as well as a competitive sport. Swimming may be taught formally in a class or may be taught in an informal setting.
Learning to swim may be distressing, difficult and dangerous to a swim trainee due to the perceived or real risk of drowning. Providing a student with an effective teaching aid may reduce the nervousness of the student and help to increase the student's focus. The teaching aid may help the student develop specific techniques of movement in the water and techniques for respiration while swimming. A teaching aid for swimming may also help a swimming student overcome fear and enable a student to assume a position and begin to learn a swimming stroke that may be difficult without a buoyant aid.
Several types of aides exist to aid students in learning to swim. Examples of these aides include substantially flat flutter boards, which are typically composed of a foam and buoy the student during kicking-type exercises. Flutter boards, for example, may be difficult to grasp while practicing kicking strokes and uncomfortable to rest on. Other flotation devices, for example, pool noodles, do not hold a solid form, are unwieldy when practicing many types of strokes, and are not comfortable when supporting the swimmer's body.